News From The River
See the Latest Water Quality Monitoring Data from the FoRR Monitoring Team!
FoRR took to the river on October 17 and 19 to monitor at five sites in the Reedy River watershed!. Our sites include the following:
- Site #1: Reedy River along the Swamp Rabbit Trail, downstream of Swamp Rabbit Cafe
- Site #2: A small tributary of the Reedy River in Falls Park
- Site #3: Reedy River behind the ReWa headquarters
- Site #4: Reedy River on Greenville Tech's Brashier campus in Simpsonville
- Site #5: Reedy River in Cedar Falls Park in Simpsonville
The pH results for September were the same as or consistent with last month's findings for the sites in the Greenville area, showing very minor fluctuations, if any. The two downstream-most sites (Greenville Tech Brashier and Cedar Falls Park) showed more significant pH changes with increases of 1.25 and 0.75, respectively.
The air and water temperatures for all sites are continuing to decrease with an average air temperature of 19.2℃ (last month 21.8℃) and average water temperature of 15.4℃ (last month 19.4℃). These results show an average decrease in air temperature of 2.2℃ and water temperature decrease of 4℃ across the five sites. The water temperatures are already lower than the historical average water temperatures at all sites except for Swamp Rabbit Cafe, where the water temperature only decreased 1℃ since September’s sampling.
Dissolved oxygen (DO) levels increased at all sites in October compared to September’s monitoring results. This can be attributed to the much lower water temperatures since DO and water temperature have an inverse relationship. The DO levels increased by a range of 0.2 mg/L to 1.9mg/L with Greenville Tech Brashier having the largest increase. The average DO level in October was 7.86mg/L which can be compared to the average of 6.88mg/L in the month prior. The DO levels were especially high at the two Simpsonville sites which were both over 9 mg/L. These levels may not increase drastically as we move into the winter months, but we do expect to see the DO levels at the Greenville sites continue to rise as temperatures continue to fall.
October’s E. coli bacteria results were below historical average levels for all sites except for Cedar Falls Park, which still has results well within the SC State Standards of acceptable levels per S.C. Adopt-a-Stream protocol and showed no change from last month’s readings. All other sites showed substantial improvement in E. coli levels, decreasing by a range of 77-400 cfu/100mL. The significant 400 cfu/100mL decrease at Falls Park comes as a relief since September’s levels were elevated to 567CFU/100mL. Also worth noting is Greenville Tech Brashier’s 0 cfu/100mL result! The low precipitation levels in the weeks prior to sampling and the lower water temperatures most likely contributed to October’s lower E. coli levels.
We have included this month's results along with SC's state standards for comparison below. All results were within state standards.
THE FORR MONITORING TEAM USES SC ADOPT-A-STREAM TECHNIQUES AND HAS ITS OWN MONITORING KIT, THANKS TO IVY SALON!